


Differences

by dreamoverdrive



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Love, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-05
Updated: 2015-07-05
Packaged: 2018-04-07 18:32:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4273635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamoverdrive/pseuds/dreamoverdrive
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A quick argument in the halls ends up being more enlightening than either Fred or Hermione had expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Differences

“You wouldn’t happen to have anything illegal on you, would you?”

He jumped, letting out a stream of profanity until he turned and remembered that she was certainly not someone that he should be swearing in front of. She glared up and him, hip jutting out and arms tightly crossed over her chest in disapproval. One of her feet tapped in an infuriating tandem and he couldn’t help but wonder if she had perfected this stance and practiced it in the months before her year as prefect.

“No,” he said carefully, knowing that if he sounded too confident that she would demand to check his pockets. Not that he had minded the pocket checking of late, but that was besides the point—

“Hello? Fred?”

“It’s George,” he said automatically, in a last ditch attempt to throw her off. She just glared.

“Nice try, Fred.”

He couldn’t help but mutter a few more curses under his breath. “For the life of me, Hermione, how the hell do you know?”

She shrugged. “It’s quite obvious, really.”

“Really? You might try informing our mother of your methods because even she can’t tell at times. You haven’t got some strange ability, have you? Don’t tell me you speak parsel tongue, too.”

She rolled her eyes. “That’s silly. What, the little snakes told me how to tell you two apart?”

“Maybe,” he snapped, knowing that he sounded ridiculous and that he was capable of a much better comeback. He’d reached the end of his tether with her and her periodic questionings in the halls and her late night checks of his and George’s papers. He was growing even more frustrated with how strange he had been acting around her and his newfound propensity for knocking things over when she surprised him. “I want to know how you figured it out. George and I have been exchanging habits from each other since we were seven. Ron falls for it every time—“

“Are you really comparing Ron’s observational skills to mine?”   
“Hey, he’s my brother!”

She threw her hands up in the air. “I’m not insulting him, I’m pointing out a difference. Merlin, Fred, why are you acting so obtuse?”

“Me? Obtuse? You’re the one that’s been stalking George and me for months—“

“Because you’re breaking school rules!”

“Oh, and you haven’t before?”

She fell silent and he knew he had a victory there. Her shoulders inched closer to her ears and even her hair seemed to crackle with irritation. He gulped when her eyes sparked at him and he suddenly wondered if he had gone too far.

“Fred Weasley,” she said in a low voice, “you are the most infuriating person—“

“Hermione, we’re just trying to get our business off the ground.”

She paused at the tired tone of his voice, eyes scanning him for dishonesty. He scowled, because he knew if there had been any dishonesty there, she probably would have found it. Hermione was uniquely frustrating for her ability to see through fronts and scan for tricks and fibs. He would have asked her how she did it, but he didn’t want to make her angry again, and he never even really got an answer to his first question—

“I can’t just let you test on first years. It isn’t right.”

“We always test on ourselves first. George and I would never put any of them at risk. They’re just for straightening out the kinks in the design.”

She looked at him oddly and then shook her head. “What is it,” he asked, curious despite himself. “More disapproval?”

“No,” she said quickly, pinching the bridge of her nose with long fingers. “I just remember saying something about straightening out a design to Harry and Ron earlier. Caught me off guard is all.”

“You know, our work isn’t too much different from your studying. We research, we plan, we gather resources—“

She gave him an affronted look, as if appalled by the implication that her studying was similar to his misconduct in any way. He raised his eyebrows, waiting for her argument.

“You’re just listing euphemisms for everything you do. You can make anything seem similar that way.”

“True, but why are we always the last ones in the common room with you by morning? We’re not just sitting there doodling, Hermione, we’re working out formulas.”

“That doesn’t mean—“

“And I dare you to check the library records to see who has checked out the most books aside from you. Do you know how many books George and I smuggled into the Dormitories during our first few years? You think we started making complex potions from nothing? Hermione, you spend potions class following a formula. We spending it making one.”

He waited for her to argue back but she stood still, nibbling on her bottom lip in thought. He had to remind himself not to stare because if she caught him looking at her lips there would be all kinds of trouble—

“I have always been just a little curious about all that parchment you had out,” she said, almost to herself. “I’ve been wondering how you did it all this time because I knew you experimented but even sheer luck wouldn’t get you the results that you’d already had—“

She broke off when she saw the slow grin spreading over his face and narrowed her eyes. “Curiosity doesn’t mean approval.”   
“I know.”   
“Then why are you smiling like that?”

He shrugged. “No particular reason. Am I not allowed to smile at you?”

She seemed to search for an answer that would contradict him but she finally sighed,“I suppose not.”

“I think you’d want to look at some of our work,” he ventured. “I have some of the lists with me.”

She looked conflicted for a moment, staring off at the wall behind him. Her brow knit and she went back to chewing on her lip and Fred suddenly wished he hadn’t invited her anywhere with him and that he’d left her here in all her righteous disapproval. She was so much easier to deal with when she was angry with him because when she wasn’t all sorts of stupid ideas started popping up in his head—

“It really wouldn’t be right,” she said in a reluctant voice.

“And here I was, thinking you were a true scholar. I never thought Hermione Granger would be the one to pass by new knowledge.”

“Stop that,” she snapped.

“Stop what?”   
“Stop irritating me.”

He grinned. “Don’t Ron and Harry annoy you?”

“Not like this,” she said, waving her hands at him.

“You mean they never push you? Never try to make you see things in new ways?”

“Of course they do! Just not the way you’re going about it.”

He smirked. “I thought you’d appreciate bluntness.”

“Fred, you’re absolutely everything but blunt.”

He suddenly remembered his original question and decided if there ever had been a time for bluntness, it was now. “Hermione, will you tell me how you know I’m not George?”

Her eyes flashed from the wall back to him. “Why did you just ask that?”

He tried his best to look innocent and unassuming. “I really want to know. I can’t think of anyone that’s been as good at it as you. Except for maybe Charlie, but he’s always been good at figuring out people.”

“Doesn’t he work with magical creatures?”

Fred scowled. “Are you insinuating that George and I are like creatures?”

Her eyes gleamed and she laughed. Fred was so caught off guard that he nearly forgot he was trying to get her to answer a question. “What if I promise to go on my best behavior for a week if you tell me? No testing, no mischief, no nothing.”

She raised an eyebrow. “And I’m guessing that this excludes George?”

“We aren’t the same person. We nearly are, but I don’t think he’d take kindly to me promising away his testing time.”

“Right.”

Her face shifted back into thoughtfulness and she glanced at him in hesitation. “You’d better not laugh at me if I tell you, Fred.”

He solemnly raised his right hand and placed it over his heart. “I swear on my honor as a no-good troublemaker—“

“Oh, stop that,” she said, swatting his hand down. “You’re not allowed to be melodramatic.”

“And who’s going to stop me?”

“I will.”

“Oh, right, I forgot. I’m quaking in my boots. Please don’t take away any house points, I’m begging.”

She scowled. “You’re being annoying again.”

“No, you’re just not used to arguing with someone as quick as yourself.”

She snorted. “Likely.”

“Go on, then. Are you going to tell me how you figured out me and George or not?”

She frowned and leaned against the wall behind her. Fred couldn’t help but notice the hall had emptied while they were speaking and that dinner would probably be starting soon and that if he took one little step he’d be close enough for—

“Your voices,” she said, knocking him out of the disastrous turn his thoughts had taken. “Your voices are different.”

“Are not. Come on, I promised you a week of good behavior. That’s worth more than a lie.”

She shot him a glare. “It wasn’t a lie. I didn’t mean that your voices sound different, but you speak differently.”

“Explain.”

She paused, drumming her fingers against her leg in thought. “Well it’s kind of like George announces what he says whereas you kind of slip it in. You surprise people and knock them off balance. It’s a bit more subtle. And you’re much easier to make angry. I can tell that you hold grudges.”

“How could you possibly tell that?”

“You pout.” She smirked at him when he glared. “You pout after confrontations and George moves on. You’re less impulsive too—“

“Am not.”

“Are too! Maybe not with the little things or when you’re angry, but you seem to prefer to plan more. I mean, you both do, but you like having structure just a tiny bit more—“

“These are silly.” He shifted uncomfortably when she pinned him with a knowing look. He hadn’t expected her to pick up on so much. He’d been expecting something trivial like an odd freckle or a difference in nostril shape, not the very slightest distinctions between himself and his brother that he hadn’t expected anyone to pick up on, much less pinpoint. He’d underestimated her. But what else should he have expected from Hermione Granger?

“I think I’d like to see those formulas.”

He refocused back on her and found that she was watching him with a strange and curious look in her eyes. He was horrified to find that his stomach decided to flip.

“Well, if you really want to—“

“I do.”

He regarded her suspiciously. “A few minutes ago you were on the fence. Why the sudden enthusiasm?”

She shrugged, an innocent smile on her face. “Maybe I realized you aren’t a creature and that you’re capable of engaging conversation.”

“Hey!” He had to pause and cycle through what she had said. The compliment left him disoriented and he wasn’t sure if he should glare or thank her. She seemed to realize what he was thinking and laughed.

“Come on, I have homework.”

“We’re going to miss dinner.”

“And here I was, thinking that you cared about your work. I never thought that Fred Weasley would be the one to pass by the opportunity for critique and improvement.”

He folded his arms, recognizing his earlier jibe and the mischievous light in her eyes. “Are you telling me that you, the scion of all that is good and pure, will be helping George and me further our designs for complete and utter chaos and the end of civil life as we know it?”

“Oh, come on and hurry up. I don’t have time for this,” she said, pushing off the wall and walking past him towards the the library.

“I’ll have to teach Harry and Ron how to get under your skin like this,” he said, following her lead. “It’s good for you.”

“Somehow, I think that this irritating ability is unique to you.”

“Are you telling me that I’m special to you?”

“I’m telling you that you have an obnoxious streak unparalleled in any other person I’ve encountered.”

He pretended to glare but he saw the hints of a smile tugging at the corners of her lips and decided he would let her win this one. After all, if being obnoxious had earned him a library date, he didn’t mind in the slightest.


End file.
